using strcpy to copy from a char

[Alok Kumar]

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
}

Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

[=?utf-8?B?SGFyYWxkIHZhbiBExLNr?=]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

Alok Kumar wrote:

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
}
>
Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

No, you can't safely assume that. strcpy will try to read *(&a + 1)
and compare it to '\0', but the byte after a isn't necessarily yours
to read, and even if it is, it's not sure to be 0.

[Malcolm McLean]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char


"Alok Kumar" <alok.kumar@gma il.comwrote in message
news:1174763021 .983319.55720@o 5g2000hsb.googl egroups.com...

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
}
>
Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?
>

No. strcpy will copy values until it hits a zero byte. On the first run that
will quite likely be the b[0], and the function will appear to work as you
want. However eventually the following byte may not be zero, and the
fucntion will plough through memory it doesn't own with unpredictable
consequences.
--
Free games and programming goodies.

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~bgy1mm

[klaushuotari@gmail.com]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

On 24 maalis, 21:03, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
>
}
>
Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

Not likely. 'A' is not terminated by NULL byte. It's just a char
constant.

If you would put it like this:

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = "A";
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);

}

You would get "A" always in b array.

[christian.bau]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

On Mar 24, 7:03 pm, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
>
}
>
Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

Each and every time while you are developing your program.
As soon as the program is used seriously and failure would cost you
money, your program will crash.

[Barry]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char


<klaushuotari@g mail.comwrote in message
news:1174777042 .779580.207460@ o5g2000hsb.goog legroups.com...

On 24 maalis, 21:03, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:

>#include <string.h>
>void myfn()
>{
> char a = 'A';
> char b[2];
> strcpy(b, &a);
>>
>}
>>
>Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

>
Not likely. 'A' is not terminated by NULL byte. It's just a char
constant.
>
If you would put it like this:
>
#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = "A";
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
>
}
>
You would get "A" always in b array.
>
>

You need a compiler.

[klaushuotari@gmail.com]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

On 25 maalis, 02:33, "Barry" <bar...@nullhig hstream.netwrot e:

<klaushuot...@g mail.comwrote in message
>
news:1174777042 .779580.207460@ o5g2000hsb.goog legroups.com...
>
>
>
>
>

On 24 maalis, 21:03, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);

>

}

>

Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?

>

Not likely. 'A' is not terminated by NULL byte. It's just a char
constant.

>

If you would put it like this:

>

#include <string.h>
void myfn()
{
char a = "A";
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);

>

}

>

You would get "A" always in b array.

>
You need a compiler.- Piilota siteerattu teksti -
>
- Näytä siteerattu teksti -

I think you're right.

[websnarf@gmail.com]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

On Mar 24, 12:03 pm, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:

#include <string.h>
void myfn() {
char a = 'A';
char b[2];
strcpy(b, &a);
}
>
Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the
strcpy?

Welcome to the lack of type safety that is the C language.

Although you made the variable a into a char *, you did not make it a
string. So when you pass its address as the second parameter to
strcpy, you are actually invoking "undefined behavior". Taking the
address of a char does not make it a "string" in the sense of the C
language. Specifically a which is 'A' is not necessarily followed by
a '\0'. (To be a string in C, you have to be a sequence of characters
terminated by a '\0'.)

The language lets you compile and even try to run this, but it doesn't
make any sense. The reason is that strings in C are defined
semantically, not syntactically. (And there is no type checking for
semantics in C.)

--
Paul Hsieh

http://www.pobox.com/~qed/

http://bstring.sf.net/

[CBFalconer]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

websnarf@gmail. com wrote:

On Mar 24, 12:03 pm, "Alok Kumar" <alok.ku...@gma il.comwrote:
>

>#include <string.h>
>void myfn() {
> char a = 'A';
> char b[2];
> strcpy(b, &a);
>}
>>

.... snip ...

>
Although you made the variable a into a char *, you did not make
it a string. So when you pass its address as the second parameter
to strcpy, you are actually invoking "undefined behavior". Taking
the address of a char does not make it a "string" in the sense of
the C language. Specifically a which is 'A' is not necessarily
followed by a '\0'. (To be a string in C, you have to be a
sequence of characters terminated by a '\0'.)

Pedantically wrong. a is perfectly capable of holding a string, as
long as that string does not exceed zero length. As initialized, a
is not a string. Char arrays can hold strings. An empty string is
not an empty char array.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home .att.net>



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Keith Thompson]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

"Malcolm McLean" <regniztar@btin ternet.comwrite s:

"Alok Kumar" <alok.kumar@gma il.comwrote in message
news:1174763021 .983319.55720@o 5g2000hsb.googl egroups.com...

>#include <string.h>
>void myfn()
>{
> char a = 'A';
> char b[2];
> strcpy(b, &a);
>}
>>
>Would I always get 'A' in b[0] and '\0' in b[1] after the strcpy?
>>

No. strcpy will copy values until it hits a zero byte. On the first
run that will quite likely be the b[0], and the function will appear
to work as you want. However eventually the following byte may not be
zero, and the fucntion will plough through memory it doesn't own with
unpredictable consequences.

It's much worse than that. There's no reason to assume that b[0] is
initially equal to '\0', or that b immediately follows a in memory.

I just tried the above function with a few printf() statements added.
The initial value of b[0] was 100, and "a" *followed* b in memory,
after a 1-byte gap. (The strcpy() call caused a segmentation fault.)

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keit h) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

[Malcolm McLean]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char


"CBFalconer " <cbfalconer@yah oo.comwrote in message

Pedantically wrong. a is perfectly capable of holding a string, as
long as that string does not exceed zero length. As initialized, a
is not a string. Char arrays can hold strings. An empty string is
not an empty char array.
>

Is one sausage a string of sausages?

--
Free games and programming goodies.

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~bgy1mm

[Chris Torek]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

>In article <4605D480.BA7DF 205@yahoo.comCB Falconer <cbfalconer@yah oo.com>

.... pointed out that a single "char" can hold a C string, as long as
the string is the empty string.

In article <8MSdnbu8MIIRuZ vbnZ2dnUVZ8vedn Z2d@bt.com>,
Malcolm McLean <regniztar@btin ternet.comwrote :

>Is one sausage a string of sausages?

Yes. In fact, "no sausages" is also a string of sausages. :-)

(Both are "degenerate cases", and if this were mathematics, one
would just specify "n >= 2" or "excluding degenerate cases" or
whatever.)

Or, in other words, mathematicians are odd. (Except when even,
complex, or irrational.) (I started college in a "math for people
who want to get a PhD in math and become a Math Professor at a
university" course, but ended up doing CS instead: it was easier,
more fun, and way more profitable. :-) )
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Wind River Systems
Salt Lake City, UT, USA (40°39.22'N, 111°50.29'W) +1 801 277 2603
email: forget about it http://web.torek.net/torek/index.html
Reading email is like searching for food in the garbage, thanks to spammers.

[Malcolm McLean]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

"Chris Torek" <nospam@torek.n etwrote in message

In article <4605D480.BA7DF 205@yahoo.comCB Falconer
<cbfalconer@yah oo.com>

>
... pointed out that a single "char" can hold a C string, as long as
the string is the empty string.
>
In article <8MSdnbu8MIIRuZ vbnZ2dnUVZ8vedn Z2d@bt.com>,
Malcolm McLean <regniztar@btin ternet.comwrote :

>>Is one sausage a string of sausages?

>
Yes. In fact, "no sausages" is also a string of sausages. :-)
>
(Both are "degenerate cases", and if this were mathematics, one
would just specify "n >= 2" or "excluding degenerate cases" or
whatever.)
>
Or, in other words, mathematicians are odd. (Except when even,
complex, or irrational.) (I started college in a "math for people
who want to get a PhD in math and become a Math Professor at a
university" course, but ended up doing CS instead: it was easier,
more fun, and way more profitable. :-) )
>

I am plannig to design a new language. It is going to be largely graphical
rather than in traditional text source.

To give you a bit of backgound, my current idea is to have two atomic data
types, a real and a "symbols". Symbols will be 64-bit values consisting of
a type and an index. Type 1 is the natural integers, of course, whilst type
0 is the list of symbol types themselves.

One thing I am try to work out is how to best represent a "wire" carrying no
signal rather than a wire carrying a signal of zero. On option is to se the
first wire to nan, the other is not to distinguish between zero and no
signal. Ditto with symbols, 0-0 can be the null symbol, but do I need
another null to represent no nothings?

--
Free games and programming goodies.

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~bgy1mm

[Army1987]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char


"Chris Torek" <nospam@torek.n etha scritto nel messaggio
news:eu5cfu01db f@news1.newsguy .com...

Or, in other words, mathematicians are odd. (Except when even,
complex, or irrational.)

What if they are fractional?

[Richard Tobin]

Re: using strcpy to copy from a char

In article <eu5cfu01dbf@ne ws1.newsguy.com >,
Chris Torek <nospam@torek.n etwrote:

>>Is one sausage a string of sausages?

>
>Yes. In fact, "no sausages" is also a string of sausages. :-)
>
>(Both are "degenerate cases", and if this were mathematics, one
>would just specify "n >= 2" or "excluding degenerate cases" or
>whatever.)

Is this were mathematics, we would distinguish between sausage and
{sausage}. Or, since we want things ordered, between sausage and
(sausage). C has an automatic conversion between (spam eggs sausage ...)
and &spam, so you can use &sausage in the same contexts as (sausage).

>Or, in other words, mathematicians are odd.

You should hear what mathematicians say about computer scientists.

-- Richard
--
"Considerat ion shall be given to the need for as many as 32 characters
in some alphabets" - X3.4, 1963.